Centre brake light not working

bigdog · Postby **bigdog** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:06 am

And no, it's not the bulb - changed it twice just in case

Any thoughts on why this might be? I assume it is not separately fused and works in circuit with the main brake lights? The loom looks to be intact so I'm kinda scratching my head on this one. When I get a minute I'll go over everything with a voltmeter and try and sort it out, but I thought someone may have come across this before??

SuperMazdaKart · Postby **SuperMazdaKart** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:51 am

it's common on NAs since the wiring tied to the bootlid hinge breaks after lots of bending from the bonnet going up & down

Brad · Postby **Brad** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:47 am

Yeah, likely the wire. Mine's broken several times, most recently the earth wire was broken somewhere back into the loom so I had to run a separate earth wire.

Juffa · Postby **Juffa** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:30 am

^^ what they said. It might not be obvious to the eye as the insulation around the wire can be intact, but the wire itself can be broken.

J

Steampunk · Postby **Steampunk** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 9:32 am

Ditto ^^
simple enough that even I fixed it all by my very own.

Does your horn still work? apparently the third/high mount brake light is on the same circuit.

Brad · Postby **Brad** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:12 am

Strangly enough, my centre light worked while the boot was up, so as I was testing it with the multi-meter, all was good, yet I was still being told it wasn't working. The boot needed to be closed to break the circuit.

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:08 am

Plus, your rear was repaired, so it may be related to that ?

bigdog · Postby **bigdog** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:33 pm

Yep - thats what I was thinking. It is likely a break up near the hinge area methinks. I will also check the horn is working tomorrow. Thanks guys!

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 2:42 pm

If you have someone activate the brake you can check with multimeter or test probe to see if the wire is hot.. and trace back. I would have thought the centre high mounted stop light would be on a different circuit to your rear combo lights as a safety feature. If the fuse goes you would expect one circuit to still function rather than lose all 3 stop light function.

bigdog · Postby **bigdog** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:43 pm

Checked the manual - same fuse runs all brake lights and horn, so its not that, therefore must be the wiring. Will do some meter work shortly...

Richee · Postby **Richee** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:01 pm

bruce wrote:Plus, your rear was repaired, so it may be related to that ?

I wouldnt go talking about bigdogs rear if I was you Bruce :mrgreen:

bigdog · Postby **bigdog** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:51 pm

sliq · Postby **sliq** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:19 pm

bigdog have you ascertained what the problem was?

bigdog · Postby **bigdog** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:49 pm

Not yet... won't get a chance till Sunday. Will let you know

bigdog · Postby **bigdog** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:18 pm

Simple to fix - two broken earth wires in the loom at the boot hinge, one for the centre brake light and one for the right hand boot/number plate light. all good now